Uninvited Guest

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Team BumbleBlades!
"Uninvited Guest"
Season	4
No. in season	17
Production company	Hasbro Studios
Airdate	July 27, 2016 (UK) August 13, 2016 (US)
Writers	Kevin Burke Chris "Doc" Wyatt
Director	Patrick Archibald
Animation studio	DHX Media Top Draw Animation
Watch this episode on YouTube

When Bumblebee makes an unexpected appearance at the Bots' Training Center, he brings along more than a few surprises for the team.

Synopsis

"It's like he's a whole different person!"

Surrounded by a wall of flame, the Bots and their partners try to work out how they're going to escape, as Heatwave's run out of water. After some discussion, they get Blades to climb on Boulder and Chase so Heatwave can use him as a ladder to escape the inferno and get a fire hose. Fortunately the whole thing was simply a training exercise in the Training Center's Rescue Arena, and Cody reports they had a perfect score. The center's computer detects a Cybertronian spacecraft hurtling through the atmosphere, and the team heads for the landing pad on the roof. Despite not knowing who's aboard, they decloak the base and use collision foam to provide the ship with a soft landing. The ship opens up to reveal Bumblebee and the team look to see who else is aboard, but are startled to find Bee has his voice back. He explains there's a lot that's happened, and he's got a new team and mission. While Blades looks increasingly uncomfortable, Bee asks Boulder to see if he can fix the ship. The others offer to take Bumblebee on a tour of the base, though they have to get Elma to scan him first.

Here we see the predator lull its prey to sleep with opera music.

Chief checks in with Salvage and Blurr who are covering for the team in Griffin Rock. Their efforts to get Mister Pettypaws off a flagpole end when Blurr gets impatient and races directly at the pole. The cat jumps off in fright, and Blurr stops short of hitting the pole. Chief is unimpressed.

As the team shows Bumblebee around, Chief announces it might be a good idea for the Burns family to return to the island, though they leave Cody behind along with the Bots. While Heatwave shows off the race track to Bumblebee, Blades explains to Cody that he's uncomfortable with the changed in his friend. Bumblebee enjoys the race track.

As Boulder and Servo work on the crashed ship, they find part of the meteor which hit it, but after they put it aside, it cracks open and a small Energon eater emerges.

The tour reaches the "neural nook" control center and then heads down to the Rescue Arena.

"Don't be afraid, Servo. They can only sense you if they smell your fear."

The energon eater moves towards Servo but is unable to reach him thanks to Boulder inadvertently moving into its path, so the creature heads into the base's air ducts, eventually ending up at the Rescue Arena, which Heatwave is showing off by revealing the martial arts equipment and floor maze. As the others go to head into the maze, the energon eater pounces on Heatwave, draining his energon and knocking him out. Chase tries to move Heatwave, only for the creature to attack and drain him as well, before disappearing into a nearby duct. The remaining Bots put Heatwave and Chase into stasis pods to recover before considering their next move. Cody has Elma lock down the base, which fortunately stops the energon eater before it can escape through the upper elevator shaft and get to Servo and the damaged ship.

In Griffin Rock, Blurr, Salvage and the Burns family are dealing with a technical problem and directing traffic when Cody contacts Chief and fills him in on the situation.

"I'm totally keeping this cannon, by the way."

Boulder uses his seismic imager to try and locate the energon eater without success. They soon find the creature in question anyway, as it pops out of a vent and heads into the Arena maze. The three Bots take an entrance each and try to corner it in the center of the maze, however Cody loses track of the creature, and Blades and Bumblebee accidentally bump into each other. Cody relocates the creature when it slams into the glass of the control booth and a short time later, they find Boulder weakened, having just managed to fight the critter off. After they get him into stasis, Cody heads to the neural nook to try to track the energon eater from there while Bumblebee and Blades continue to hunt. Blades confesses he's having trouble adapting to Bumblebee's new circumstances, though Bumblebee feels their friendship can survive the changes. They manage to find the energon eater in a duct, but have trouble getting at it. Cody suggests luring the creature to them instead, and they hit on the idea of using the spaceship as bait.

With the lockdown ended, the two Bots, Cody and Servo conceal themselves around the landing pad. When the energon eater makes an appearance, Bumblebee and Blades hit it with foam and a net, trapping it. With it safely stored in a stasis pod, the other three Bots are reactivated and the rest of the team returns to the center for a reunion. Bumblebee invites Blades to join his team on a mission before leaving — Blades is overjoyed, until Heatwave points out that all of Bumblebee's missions involve capturing dangerous things.

Featured characters

(Numbers indicate order of appearance.)

Quotes

"Thanks, Chief!"
"He says 'thank you, Chi-' Oh, sorry, habit. Still not used to this."

—Bumblebee and Blades

"You know, I can rig something together to connect these broken parts. Won't take too long."
"Or we could just use this wire that they actually make for this very purpose."
"Aw, that's no fun."

—Salvage and Graham

"Then let's gear up and take it down!"
"See? That's a nice catchphrase. I gotta get me one of those too."

—Blades and Bumblebee

Notes

Continuity notes

• Bumblebee makes many references to his team over in the Robots in Disguise cartoon. Bits of dialogue allow us to narrow down when in that series this episode takes place...
  • The spaceship he's flying originally belonged to Drift, so this has to take place after "One of Our Mini-Cons Is Missing", where Drift permanently joined Bumblebee's team on Earth.
  • He mentions his need to find a catchphrase, a running gag throughout the first season of the show, but one that ended with the finale of that season, "Battlegrounds, Part 2".
  • This leaves a good seven episodes of Robots in Disguise-time for Bee to make this little trip.
• Moreover, this episode seems to confirm that Robots in Disguise takes place three years after Prime.

Transformers references

• Bumblebee says that he and Blades will have a "blast and a half" if he ever visits his team for a mission, a saying often used by Robots in Disguise human character Denny Clay.

Real-world references

• When the Burnses bid farewell to Bumblebee as they return to Griffin Rock, and again when they say goodbye at the episode's end, it is Kade who comments both times on how much he loves Bumblebee's voice. That's probably an inside joke based on the fact that 'Bee's voice actor Will Friedle and Kade's voice actor Jason Marsden are best friends in real life. In the French dub, the joke works in a funny way because Alessandro Bevilacqua is the regular voice of both Kade and Bumblebee.
• When Cody holds Servo as the Energon eater goes by, the shot is a reference to a scene from Jurassic Park.
• There are numerous references to the Alien movie franchise, which also features a black alien sneaking around in the walls and taking out the crew one by one.

Trivia

• Will Friedle had provided the voice for Bumblebee in Transformers: Prime, and Robots in Disguise. This is his debut for the character in Rescue Bots.
• Optimus apparently sang karaoke with Blades.

Foreign localization

French

• Title: "Celui qu'on attendait pas" ("The one we weren't expecting")
• Original airdate: ?

Italian

• Title: "Un ospite indesiderato" ("An unwanted guest")
• Original airdate: 4 October 2017